How was the Alert’s First-Aid Program?

Thousands of people dying every day, just because of not getting timely first aid.

I always wanted to learn how to do first aid. I watched a few YouTube videos. Nothing worked out. Somehow I got an opportunity to attend a first aid session. It was taken by Gautam from Alert.

First, I have to tell about the Alert. Alert is an NGO. Their main mission and vision are educating at least one first responder in a family. this target was given by our former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

Gautam taught me the basic first aid lessons. It was really useful. And he said we are conducting workshops on a regular basis, if you are interested you can also join in our 2-day program. After 2 months, finally, I got time to attend the 2 days workshop.

Day 1:

As usual, I am late. There were Totally 6 persons. and I am the 6th one.

1st half: Mr Karthik met the participants individually. Actually, he is the host. He was very kind enough and patience. He explained everything in detail. He taught about Golden hours, the chain of survival, basic life support( BLS), how to check vitals, CPR, etc.

Lunch: They provided free lunch from Hot chips. like I said there were 6 participants. We used this lunchtime to get to know each other. Sathya, Jaya, Priya, Dharma, Ravi and me. Sathya & Jaya are college students. Priya working in CTS, Dharma is a PG scholar, and Ravi just returned to India from the US after 19 years. We had a very good time. did I tell you? The alert’s office premises is beautiful, it is kinda beach house, located in Casuarina drive, near Neelankarai beach.

2nd half: Mr Neels continued the second part. Neels also one of the volunteers and a full-time employee in Alert. We were doing practically how to do CPR. He showed us how much pressure we give and how much air reaches to the victim’s lungs, hand position, etc. Everything we can see on screen. And we can analyze the mistakes. He taught us how to do CPR correctly. We might have done compressions more than 1000 times in day 1. At last, we become proficient in CPR. To be honest, the live screen monitoring really helped to correct our mistakes. Day 1 ended.

Evening: As Priya left earlier, We 5 went to the beach. Just chilling at the beach for 20 minutes. day one over.

day 2:

Again, They called and asked me to come fast. 15 minutes late. 😛 😐

1st half: Today we got a victim. He is Santosh. He is also one of the volunteers in Alert. This session was taken by Karthik. Today all about fractures, electric shock, choking, fire accident, how to do dressing, how to dispose of the wastage, how to use AED, how to first aid for heart attack, cardiac arrest, heat stroke, brain stroke, etc. As always, Karthik taught us everything clearly.

lunch: As already we are familiar with each other. Lunchtime was full of fun. Neels has an extraordinary sense of humor. He always cracks jokes. Satya and Jaya both are Boxers. Dharma and Neels shared about their love stories(It was hilarious). Lunchtime finished. Really it was full of fun. Needless to say, Hotchips lunch was good.

2nd half: Second half is a rescue part, like how to rescue the victim. Karthik taught us how to rescue the victim in all the possible ways. How to rescue if you are alone, or with the help of another person, with 3 persons, 4 person extra. Course completed. Here comes the main part, Exam. Karthik will give a scenario for each person, we have to respond as a first responder. Santosh is our victim. To be honest, we have to give him an Oscar. He acted realistically. The demo session was really tough. But the 2 days training helped us, we responded. We saved the victim and handed over to the medical team. Karthik corrected our mistakes and taught us how to respond in a better way. Day 2 Ended. Course completed. We became first responders. Yaaaaahhh..!!

Evening: We 6. Plus Karthik, Neels, and Santosh also joined with us. We all went to the Neelankarai beach. At first, everyone hesitates to get into the sea. And Jaya literally pulled everyone and kicked into the sea. Except Karthik, Santosh, and Satya. We 6 step into the sea. Fun begins. oh my God. It was wonderful. We went almost 20 to 25 meters into the sea. We were playing with tides. We don’t know how time went. We came to the shore around 6:45. Then we played a little while on shore and took pictures.

Guess what? we got a sponsor. It’s Priya. Then we all went to a nearby Aavin parlor to buy kulfi. Another surprise. we got another sponsor. This time Ravi. Ravi offered Chat items sponsoring. Throughout the day, we all had fun. It was really really really wonderful. After a long time, I was smiling from the bottom of my heart and forgot everything but enjoying the current moment. It was fun. Happy ending.

What I got?

An effective FirstAid Training. I bet You cannot get anywhere better than here.

Wow.. Shakthi.. It was an wonderful article I didn’t expected this from you. It was mind blowing write up and enjoyed ready about my own session from third person point of view. Thank God, I did everything perfectly and got good aspect from you.

Behalf of ALERT I would really thank you for the wonderful review about ALERT organization and yes life time friendship gained at end of our course. Thanks to God for bonding great souls at one point.

And I’m very sure, we can do changes in our society with this awesome team called VoICE (Volunteers In Case of Emergencies)